James Buchanan Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.

James Buchanan
What is right and what is practicable are two different things.

James Buchanan
To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

James Buchanan
Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world.

James Buchanan
You have lost a child, a dear, dear child. I have lost the only earthly object of my affection.... I have now one request to make,... deny me not. Afford me the melancholy pleasure of seeing her body before internment.

James Buchanan
Our union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war.

James Buchanan
If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.

James Buchanan
The course of events is so rapidly hastening forward that the emergency may soon arise when you may be called upon to decide the momentous question whether you possess the power by force of arms to compel a State to remain in the Union

James Buchanan
If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.

James Buchanan
It is said that serious apprehensions are to some extent entertained (in which I do not share) that the peace of this District may be disturbed before the 4th of March next. In any event, it will be my duty to preserve it, and this duty shall be performed.
In conclusion it may be permitted to me to remark that I have often warned my countrymen of the dangers which now surround us. This may be the last time I shall refer to the subject officially. I feel that my duty has been faithfully, though it may be imperfectly, performed, and, whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country.

James Buchanan
I shall not again be a candidate for the Presidency... I shall be 65 on the 23rd April next, and I had determined upon my line of life from the remnant of days with which a kind Providence might bless me, discarding every idea of the Presidency... I can now leave public life, I trust, with credit. Should I become President, the case may be very different, after I shall have worn myself out with the toil and anxiety of the office.

James Buchanan